Jiri Hudler will be back in the lineup Monday night when the Red Wings host the Los Angeles Kings. Hudler, expected to strengthen the Wings’ secondary scoring this season, was a healthy scratch Saturday in New Jersey. With one goal and five assists in 24 games, Hudler hasn’t provided the Wings with the offense they were expecting when he returned from a one-year hiatus to the Russian Kontinental Hockey League.

Kris Draper has played three games since returning from sports hernia surgery.

Jimmy Howard will be in net against the Kings.

And that is the whole article…basically, an answer to what I was thinking this morning when I said: The Wings play the Kings tonight at the Joe. My gut says Howie starts and Hudler will be in the lineup. Don’t give up on little Happy yet. The season is long.

I’m not sure why they threw in the bit about Draper unless he’s the one who Hudler will be replacing in the lineup. Happy finds himself in an unusual position of rotating in and out of the lineup with the fourth-liners – a position he will have to play his way out of.